So, how can we make sure our garments last as long as possible? We’ve gathered some tips on garment care from Good On You and The Green Edition that will help extend their useful life:
Do laundry when you have a full load but be careful not to overload your washer as this can prevent a thorough cleaning and causes excessive rubbing.
Wash garments according to their care label instructions and follow the directions of your laundry detergent. Different fibres have different requirements for washing, drying, and stain treatments. What might work for one fibre may just damage another (e.g., bleach is OK for white cottons but damaging to wool and other protein fibres).
Separate clothes based on colours or use cold water to prevent colour loss and dyes from running.
Treat stains immediately so that they don’t set. Blot the stain with cold water, rather than rubbing it.
Store your clothes properly. Fold heavy knits rather than hanging them as they can stretch out and store clothes in a cool, dry environment, away from direct sunlight.
Mend clothing when damaged and alter clothes as needed. Stay tuned for future posts on basic mending techniques and what to look for in a quality garment!
Today, we’re talking about the most abundantly produced natural textile fibre on the planet, cotton. If you take a look at the fibre content labels in your clothing and linen closets, we bet you’ll see a whole lot of cotton in there!
Cotton is a plant fibre, and like all plant fibres, is made from cellulose. Cotton comes from the boll or seed capsule of the plant, where the fibres are attached to the cotton seed. Cotton grows in tropical and subtropical climates, including North/South America, Africa (including Egypt), and the world’s largest producer, India. Cotton is very commonly blended with other fibres such as polyester, to produce textiles with desired properties and to reduce cost.
Pros:
Absorbent, is stronger when wet, feels nice against the skin, and can withstand high temperatures.
Used for bedding and towels, hospital fabrics, undergarments, denim, and warm weather clothing.
Cons:
Wrinkles easily, prone to shrinkage, can cling to skin if it gets too wet. Can take longer to dry.
Covers 2.4% of arable land, but accounts for 6% of global pesticide use.
Cotton is a “thirsty” crop, and requires a LOT of water. It can take over 2,500 litres of water to produce one t-shirt! Climate change is increasing the need for irrigation in some areas, potentially causing water shortages.
Monoculture crops can be vulnerable to pests and disease. Workers can be negatively affected by long-term exposure to pesticides and fertilizers, and these chemicals can have negative environmental impacts as well.
But for such a commonly-used fibre, what is being done to reduce the environmental impact of its production? Here are some methods:
Genetically-modified (GM):
One method to reduce the use of insecticides is to use “Bt cotton”, where the plant is modified to produce a type of bacterial toxin that kills caterpillar pests (Lepidopterans). Unfortunately this is not effective against all types of insect pests, and has caused some disagreement in the scientific community as to whether or not it’s more effective than conventional methods. [1,2]
Organic:
Requirements can vary by location, but generally organic means no use of synthetic pesticides or herbicides, and no genetic modification. This encourages practices such as crop rotation, biological control (e.g. beneficial insects), and reduced water use [3]. The Global Organic Textile Standard is a 3rd party certification body for organic textile fibres, which can help ensure the fibres come from an organic farm, but also that only safe chemicals are used in the fibre processing and fabric production.
Becoming an organic grower can be inaccessible for some, and can take a number of years to achieve. The folks at Better Cotton work with cotton farmers to grow cotton more sustainably and improve working conditions. You can learn more and see who their members are on their website.
This is improving with companies like Recover Fiber, who have developed methods for automating and optimizing the steps of this process to make recycled cotton more sustainable and accessible! It’s great to see progress being made in this area.
Anything else you’d like to know about cotton that we didn’t cover here? Let us know in the comments!
Wang, Z. J., Hai, L., Huang, J. K., Hu, R. F., Rozelle, S., & Pray, C. (2009). Bt cotton in China: are secondary insect infestations offsetting the benefits in farmer fields?. Agricultural Sciences in China, 8(1), 83-90.
Delate, K., Heller, B., & Shade, J. (2021). Organic cotton production may alleviate the environmental impacts of intensive conventional cotton production. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems, 36(4), 405-412. doi:10.1017/S1742170520000356
Put simply, food waste is any part of food that is not eaten. Food waste occurs throughout our food system, all the way from production, to transportation, to retail, and through to individual consumer’s fridges and pantries. As consumers we would recognize it most as food we throw away after we purchase it. Common food waste in the home includes:
Food that spoils before we eat it
Food scraps that we cannot use or choose not to use
Overportioned cooked food (aka “leftovers”) that isn’t eaten
As food waste happens at every stage of our food system, it should be addressed from a systemic lens, especially due to the problems it causes in relation to the climate crisis.
Why is food waste a problem?
When we consider the climate crisis, food waste is a substantial barrier to our goals to reduce our global carbon footprint. According to Project Drawdown, “one third of the food raised or prepared does not make it from farm or factory to fork” (Project Drawdown). Canada also bears responsibility for our current food waste problem – food waste costs the Canadian economy up to $100 billion dollars annually (NZWC) and the average Edmontonian’s garbage contains 22-26% food waste as of 2016 (City of Edmonton) (this stat is pre-wastecart system).
Let’s examine five problems associated with food waste:
Greenhouse Gases
Organic matter that ends up in a landfill produces methane gas. This is a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming, but is 21 to 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide (Change for Climate).
Monetary Cost
Consider food waste as throwing away money, and costs the average family of four approximately $1,760 annually (Change for Climate). All of the food waste that ends up in a municipality’s waste stream requires resources in staffing, facilities, transportation, etc. to dispose or divert it. This cost is passed on to utilities and then down to the citizens via taxes.
Land space
Growing food takes up a lot of land space, livestock even more so than plant-based food – up to eight times more! Landfills and other waste diversion facilities also occupy a lot of land, and are often located in marginalized or racialized communities.
It’s in the name! Food waste is ultimately a waste of resources. Many of those resources are scarce already, or could be used in a more positive and effective way. This includes water for irrigation (New Food Magazine), and fossil fuels for production and distribution. As we transition away from fossil fuels and work to conserve our water, we need think hard about using our resources more efficiently.
Hunger and food insecurity
4.4 million people in Canada are food insecure (Zero Food Waste). There is no logical reason for anyone to go hungry while so much food waste exists. Many food banks or mutual aid groups already exist to divert that food which would otherwise be wasted. Setting these up on a larger scale could make a huge difference to our carbon footprint, and more importantly, to people’s lives.
Food waste is a problem because the monetary cost, carbon cost, and human cost of those resources is so high. Eliminating food waste throughout the food system is a large undertaking and will take concerted efforts by all levels of government, businesses, and community groups. But the positives would be well worth the effort. Thankfully, Edmonton and many of the surrounding municipalities have already taken a big step toward diverting food waste by introducing a cart-based waste collection system.
Even more relevant to you, reader, is that food waste can easily be prevented by individuals and households by taking a few simple steps.
How can I prevent food waste in my home and community?
In high income countries, the majority of food waste happens at the retail and household level (Drawdown). Therefore, eliminating or slowing food waste in our homes is one of the easiest actions we can take to reduce our individual emissions and act against climate change. They may seem small, but small actions add up to big changes!
Here are EIGHT ways you can take to tackle food waste in your home and community:
Low effort:
Learn how to store your food properly to keep it fresh longer (Love Food Hate Waste)
Use the Flashfood app to help prevent food waste in your local grocery store
Donate to local food banks or organizations working toward food security (ex: Leftovers Foundation)
Mid effort:
Meal plan and make grocery lists to ensure you only buy what you know you will eat
Move towards a more plant-based diet
Save your food scraps and make DIY veggie broth
Most effort:
Set up a Little Free Pantry in your yard or community space
Volunteer at your local food bank or shelter; they divert a lot of food from grocery stores and retail stores and instead use it to help our city’s vulnerable folks (note: many food bank and community organizations have paused their volunteer opportunities due to covid-19 restrictions)
Build a backyard composter (note, composting should be used as a last resort. We know wasted food happens, and this is the next best thing to using your food.)
Another major source of waste during the holidays is gift wrap. Tape, plastic additives, and foil wrapping make gift wrap difficult or impossible to recycle. Zero Waste Canada estimates that Canadians throw out 540,000 tonnes of wrapping paper and gift bags each year! To cut down on this waste, Greenpeace Canada suggests using upcycled materials such as old maps, magazines, or newspapers to wrap gifts or make bows, using string instead of tape, or trying out Furoshiki wrapping, a Japanese method of wrapping items using a square piece of fabric.
Furoshiki wrapping is versatile as you can wrap a variety of different shapes that are usually difficult to do with paper gift wrap. You can purchase Furoshiki wrapping cloths or make your own out of unwearable textiles. Just keep in mind that knit fabrics such as t-shirts will have a little bit of stretch and you may need to double up the fabric for heavier items. There are plenty of online resources for how to make your own gift wrap from upcycled textiles and the various ways you can wrap using Furoshiki techniques.
Here are Mary’s Christmas gifts from a couple of years ago, all wrapped with fabric! She used a mixture of scarves, bandanas, and cloth wraps from Lush.
Fabric is just as colourful and festive as single-use wrapping paper.
From a global perspective, various methods have been employed for dealing with textile waste at different scales.
The name for the “old school” method of recycling textile waste is by producing a material called shoddy, where fabric mills sell unusable fabric by weight (aka “pound goods”) to manufacturers for the creation of rags, insulation, mattress padding, etc. Post-consumer garments can be used too…You may have heard of insulation made from denim? That’s basically shoddy!
Companies like H&M, Levi’s, and The North Face collect old garments and work with a company who sorts them and decides what can be resold vs. what is essentially shoddy.
Currently circular textile solutions like fibre-to-fibre recycling through mechanical, chemical, or thermal recycling methods are in the research and development phase. Where these technologies have been developed, they are not yet used at scale.
Numerous brands are starting to create “monomaterial” products, which are made completely of one fibre, such as polyester. This would make the item easier to recycle as the components (fabrics, zippers, buttons, etc.) wouldn’t have to be separated prior to processing. One exciting example of this is the Helly Hansen Lifa Infinity Pro material, which is a waterproof, laminated fabric made entirely of polypropylene!
Several mills around the world have programs to use pre-consumer (production waste) and post-consumer (used items) textiles as inputs for their recycled content. Examples include Teijin Fabrics eco-circle (polyester), Infinited Fiber (cellulose fibres), and Worn Again (polyester, cotton, and poly/cotton blends). While they don’t usually interact directly with the general public, they would partner with brands and other textile manufacturers to process the input materials and turn them back into usable fibres.
Today we’re expanding on our discussion of avenues for textile waste. Within Canada, there are various initiatives at the provincial, municipal, or company level. We’ve listed some examples of these initiatives below.
In April 2017, the City of Markham banned textiles from the garbage. Instead, residents drop off their unwanted textiles in bins located throughout the city where they are picked up and sorted for reuse or downcycling into products such as stuffing or insulation. As someone commented on our previous post about avenues for textile waste within Edmonton, second-hand or thrift stores like Goodwill also make their unwearable donations into items such as rags.
Similar initiatives have been introduced elsewhere such as Nova Scotia where a collective of six organizations have come together to form the Association for Textile Recycling (AFTeR). In 2015 alone, 11 million pounds (~4990 tonnes) of textiles were collected in Nova Scotia, with only 5% ending up as waste. BC’s Return-it Textiles program has diverted more than 485 tonnes of textiles since 2019 through its 46 drop-off locations.
General Recycled is a Canadian company which has recently expanded and scaled up its operations in Quebec. They take used FR coveralls made from aramid fibres to be shredded and reincorporated into new coveralls. We hope they’ll be able to expand into other fibre types in future!
Canadian company Native Shoes collect their shoes back from customers when they’re no longer usable, and the shoes are ground up and used in the construction of playgrounds.
All these amazing ways to reduce fashion and textile waste, and just in Canada — stay tuned for our evaluation of textile waste reduction internationally.
If you follow The Guardian, then you may have seen the alarming images of textile waste in the Atacama Desert in Chile. Earlier this month, Agence France-Presse shared photos of over 39,000 tonnes of discarded second-hand and unsold clothing that are imported and landfilled in Chile. AFP News Agency attributes this clothing waste to the fast fashion industry. According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, over 100 billion garments are produced each year!
This Friday, November 26 is Black Friday, followed by Cyber Monday on November 29. @retailcouncilcanada’s 4th annual Holiday Shopping Survey 2021 states that of the 2,500 Canadian consumers surveyed, 43% plan to shop on Black Friday, with 35% planning to shop on Cyber Monday. Clothing is the top category that consumers plan to spend their money on.
So, what can you do to avoid impulse clothing purchases this year?
@cariumagreentips suggests asking yourself these five questions before making a purchase:
Do I need it?
Do I have something similar?
How often will I wear it?
Is it made to last?
Do I love it?
If the higher purchase price of a sustainably or ethically produced garment compared to fast fashion clothing is a barrier, then consider looking for deals from the retailers that you otherwise couldn’t afford on Black Friday/Cyber Monday. Think about the purchase as an investment, as higher quality garments last longer and need to be replaced less often. A trick for this is to think about the use value you will get out of a longer-lasting piece. To do this, divide the total cost by how many times you think you may use the item to justify spending the higher initial cost.
Learn about the impacts of your purchases before buying. Check out the comprehensive reading list Fashion Revolution developed for Black Friday about fast fashion production, consumption, and waste.
Dealing with textile waste is really tricky business, as our clothes are more often than not made up of a blend of different fibres and materials. Polyester/cotton t-shirts, acrylic/nylon scarves, coated backpack fabrics, and laminated waterproof jackets mean that it’s difficult to separate various components for effective recycling and reuse. With that in mind, what are our options for processing textile waste?
Within Edmonton, the City of Edmonton’s WasteWise app suggests that clothing in good condition be reused through donation, resale, or given away and offers a list of potential donation avenues through its Reuse Directory. The Directory lists nonprofit organizations such as Bissell Thrift Shop, MCC Thrift Shop, Salvation Army Thrift Store, and Goodwill. You can also donate to local small businesses like Chubby Fem Thrift. Make sure to check with these organizations first in case there are items they do not accept. Note that this is not an exhaustive list and that other nonprofit and for-profit organizations accept clothing donations as well.
Outdoor clothing bins located throughout the City are owned and operated by different companies (e.g. Value Village) with proceeds of these donations benefiting various programs or charities. If these bins are full, do not leave your items outside! Clothing that gets wet from rain or snow can become mouldy or smelly, making it no longer sellable.
Unfortunately, Edmonton does not have a formal municipal textile recycling program. The WasteWise app suggests throwing these items in the garbage. However, you can repurpose your unusable textiles to divert them from landfill. Searching “repurposed clothing” or “upcycled clothing” will give you many ideas to creatively make use of these items. Blenderz Garment Recyclers make and sell craft kits and items made from unwearable items, which would be a great place to start and support a local business!
It’s a bit of a misconception that any one country is “better” to manufacture in than another. Taking a stance against a country’s treatment of their population and/or their foreign policy is one way to decide where you (don’t) want to spend your money, but for most countries the answer isn’t a clear yes or no. One might assume that a product made in North America is inherently better quality or more ethically produced than a product made in Eastern Europe or Asia, but that isn’t always the case. It can be hard for North American companies to find skilled workers locally, and there are still some who pay by the number of pieces produced (aka piecework) rather than an hourly wage. Some countries with high volumes of textile production have excellent environmental standards, while some do not; there’s also the question of whether those standards are being enforced. For these reasons, it’s not as easy as simply not buying garments made in country X, and/or only buying items made in country Y.
Regardless of where they are located, however, there are many manufacturers who are choosing to adhere to more rigorous social and environmental standards. While it takes some effort, researching where products are made and pushing for supply chain transparency is one way to make more educated decisions. We’re in the early, messy stages of it all, but numerous brands have begun responding to consumer requests for this transparency by sharing who their manufacturing partners are. That information is more easily accessible from some brands than others, but a quick search enabled us to find at least some information from companies like Patagonia, Gap, REI, Arcteryx, H&M, Nike, and others. We’re not officially endorsing these companies for the record, just encouraging you to take a look for yourself.
When it comes to ethical manufacturing, it can be a bit hard to find the information you need to make an informed choice. However, browsing the websites of some third party organizations can help you identify brands taking steps towards environmental and social responsibility. For example, the Fairtrade Foundation has a section of their website on brands who use Fairtrade, and you can take a look at the Sustainable Apparel Coalition’s website to see who their members are. The Sustainable Apparel Coalition has created numerous resources for their members to use, including Higg Facility Tools for both environment and social/labour. Many brands have indicated their desire to use these tools, but unfortunately it can be difficult to tell where they are in the process unless they’re sharing that information themselves.
For smaller brands who don’t have the resources to join these larger initiatives, take a look at their websites to see what their policies are on environmental and social responsibility. Do they state clearly what their values are, what their targets are, and how they’re making those goals happen? Same goes for the larger companies too!
When it comes to making sustainable claims on clothing and other textile items, things start to get confusing pretty quickly. Governments and standards organizations do have documents which outline proper fibre content labelling [1] and “self-declared” environmental claim [2] definitions and requirements, but these documents are often highly technical (boring) and inaccessible ($180 just to read it??). So where do consumers turn to get reliable information on the products they purchase?
One helpful resource is the Textile Exchange, a nonprofit which has created numerous standards for the certification of claims such as the Global Recycled Standard (GRS), has excellent educational resources on “preferred” fibre advancements, and has created the Material Change Index (MCI) to show how over 100 brands are performing in key areas. Of course, organizations like this and the similar Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) cost money to be a part of, which excludes many smaller businesses and startups from having the same visibility. When looking at smaller more independent companies, keep an eye out for any claims they’re making, and whether those claims can be substantiated. Are they claiming their product is “sustainable” without any explanation as to why? Do they discuss why they’ve chosen specific materials? Do they talk about who makes their products and if those craftspeople are being paid a living wage? A great example of this is from the Canada/US/Ghana-based company Osei-Duro.
Government of Canada. (2000). Guide to the Textile Labelling and Advertising Regulations.
ISO 14021. (2016). Environmental labels and declarations — Self-declared environmental claims (Type II environmental labelling)
